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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Horrible Frog Monster

A terrible monster of considerable size and ferocity. I can't say this frog beast is a dragon replacement - but it isn't not a dragon replacement. I intend to use it as a 'Thousand Towers' monster (aka ASE), and it's what's dwells in the lower hull of my "Red Demon" map.

Caecilian Tyrant attacks

Caecilian
Tyrant

No Enc. 1/(1-4)

Movement: (40')/20' Swim

Armorclass: 5

Hit Dice: 10 HD*

Attacks:1

Damage: 1D8 + Poison/ Special

Save: F 8

Morale:8

Hoard Class:XXI

XP: 3100

Caecilian
Spawn

No Enc. 8-18

Movement: (10')/20' Swim

Armorclass: 9

Hit Dice: 1/2

Attacks:1

Damage: 1D2 + Poison

Save: F 0

Morale:12

Hoard Class: Nil

XP:6

The Caecilian Tyrant
is a feared alpha predator of the vile fens that feeds
indiscriminately on anything smaller than it. Frog-like giants,
Tyrants range up to 14' long and can be as wide as 8'. Varying
wildly in pattern from the bright color of tree frogs to dull browns,
Tyrants shamble on four legs most of the time, and rear up on their
back legs only to make aggressive displays. Caecilian Tyrants are
fairly quick, and swim well, but they are amphibious ambush hunters
and will lay in large pools or mud pits with clusters of their large
eyes on the surface. Tyrants are covered in thick scales, this,
combined with their poisonous attack, means Tyrants are unused to
prey that injures them and will often flee back to their
lair if wounded.

Generally Tyrants
prefer to lair in dark sheltered places, and their large size means
that simple burrows in the swamp mud are insufficient. Because they
cannot make their own lairs, Tyrants most often hole up in ruins, and so
remain fairly rare, with a single Tyrant, or rarely a small family
group, guarding a hunting range of tens of miles centered on the
lair. If they are encountered in their lair, the Tyrant is far less
likely to flee and will have a morale of 11. Caecilian Tyrants are not especially intelligent, having only the limited reasoning of a hunting beast with only a real understanding of how to hunt and live in the wild swamp.

Posion
Barb – Tyrants have a mouth
full of wicked teeth as long as a human forearm set in shark like
rows, but they do not use them in battle. Instead of biting, Tyrants
use their frog-like tongues, 12' long and capable of striking into
the second row of melee. The tongue is tipped with a jagged bone
barb covered in a virulent venom. If struck, a victim must save of
die as well as taking 1D8 points of damage from the wound and the
deadly poison coursing through it.

Devour
– On a natural 20 a Tyrant
will not only strike with its barb but wrap its victim in its tongue
and drag them into its huge maw. The victim will devoured the next
round and slain, but will be able to make a Strength check to break
free from the tongue is lieu of an attack prior to being devoured.

Boiling
Spawn – Caecilian Tyrants are
hermaphroditic and almost universally have natal young encysted on
their back. Normally these young emerge in small numbers once every
few weeks and, if not devoured by their parent, wander off to grow
slowly into new tyrants. When a Tyrant is slain a strange chemical
process occurs, within 1-2 turns of death, as the Tyrant's body cools
all the young remotely able to survive tear themselves free all at
once and launch into a wild frenzy of cannibalism and violence.
These creatures are individually weak, but 2D6+6 of them appear
unexpectedly and all share the adult Tyrant's deadly poison.

That'll be cool, but I'm working on a swamp crawl of my own that borrows stuff from a lot of people's blogs. I'm slowly putting it together and will evenutally post it as blog post or a Google Doc or a PDF or something. It won't be for another few months, though.